21/03/2008
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's first free practice session, the air temperature is 28 degrees C, while the track temperature is 38 degrees. It is bright and sunny with 71% humidity.
The lights go green, and the Force Indias of Fisichella and Sutil lead the way, followed, moments later, by Bourdais, Vettel, Kubica, Davidson, Rosberg, Piquet, Glock…
Less than five minutes into the session, everyone bar Raikkonen, Massa, Coulthard, Barrichello and Kovalainen has been out for an installation lap. Indeed, Button completes two laps before returning to his garage.
Twelve minutes into the session, with the Ferraris still to make an appearance, Alonso watches the action - or lack of it - from the back of the Renault garage. At which point Bourdais heads down the pitlane.
The Frenchman completes the first lap of the weekend, crossing the line at 1:43.367. In the pits, Jarno Trulli looks to be falling asleep in his Toyota.
Bourdais improves to 42.101, but it isn't long before he is eclipsed by teammate Sebastian Vettel, who posts 41.211. As Glock heads down the pitlane, Alonso looks as though he too is ready to take forty-winks.
Glock goes third with a 41.395, behind Vettel and Bourdais, who have both broken the 1:40s barrier. As Felipe Massa puts in his earplugs, Trulli heads off to work.
Having gone quickest (39.051), Glock gets all crossed up at the end of the start/finish straight.
Trulli goes second as Nico Rosberg heads down the pitlane, followed by Piquet. The German gets all out of shape as he exits the corner at the start of the start/finish straight.
As David Coulthard prepares to get into his car, Lewis Hamilton heads down the pitlane. Elsewhere, Rosberg improves to third (38.855) behind Trulli and Glock.
Trulli raises the benchmark with a 37.540 as Piquet goes third, however, all eyes are on Hamilton, who finally crosses the line at 38.285 to go third. Meanwhile, Massa and Raikkonen are on track.
The Ferraris gets straight to work, and as Raikkonen goes quickest in the first sector of his first flying lap, Hamilton goes quickest with a 37.265. The Finn eventually crosses the line at 37.303 to go third, ahead of Trulli, Massa and Glock.
Forty minutes into the session and though there only twelve names on the timesheets, it is getting very busy, with fourteen drivers on track.
As Massa goes quickest (36.639), Sutil pulls to the side of the track, smoke pouring from the back of his car, which, of course, features a Ferrari engine. The German finally gets going again, and slowly makes his way back to the pits.
It's all over for Coulthard, the front of whose car, yet again, disintegrates after running over the kerbs at Turn 12. Nobody else involved, and the Scot is OK. However, even though he was travelling quite quickly it seems odd that the front wheels came off so easily. His suspension has collapsed but was it the cause or result of the off?
The session also appears to be over for Raikkonen, who has pulled off on to one of the wide expanses of tarmac. All of which doesn't bode well for Ferrari. On board-footage shows the Ferrari sounding rough, very rough.
The session is red-flagged as the two cars are recovered. With forty minutes remaining, it's Raikkonen, Massa, Kovalainen, Hamilton, Trulli, Glock, Piquet, Heidfeld, Coulthard and Button. Still no times from Kubica, Davidson, Sato or Nakajima.
The session resumes at 10.56 (local time), and Kovalainen is one of the first back on track, indeed, within a few moments there are fifteen cars on track.
Alonso goes sixth with a 37.551, as Sato and Davidson finally post times, albeit at the other end of the timesheets.
There would clearly appear to be a problem with Kubica's car. The Pole is sitting at the back of his garage looking extremely hacked off. He has completed just three laps and hasn't set a time. Meanwhile, Alonso goes fifth with a 37.331.
Further problems for Red Bull as Mark Webber pulls off on the back straight, smoke billowing out of his Renault powerplant. Another miserable day for the Milton Keynes duo.
Heidfeld moves up to seventh, and Button eighth, as, in the Ferrari garage, the mechanics work on Kimi Raikkonen's car.
Massa goes quickest in the final sector, thereby consolidating top spot with a 36.004, which is still almost a second off last year's pole-winning time. Next time around, the Brazilian improves to 35.744.
Flavio Briatore watches as Piquet moves up to sixth (37.034), the Italian looking impassive.
With thirteen minutes remaining, Button improves to seventh, as the Red Bull crew inspect the damage to Coulthard's car. Robert Kubica dons his helmet and waits patiently as his crew finishes work on his car. Elsewhere, Nakajima spins on the back straight but is able to continue.
Nakajima still having problems, the Japanese driver appearing to have heaps of oversteer.
Just over six minutes remaining, and Hamilton is on track as Heidfeld heads off track over the gravel trap and seemingly on his way to Kuala Lumpur. Elsewhere, Jean Alesi watches the action from the Ferrari garage… a Maranello legend.
Massa goes quickest in the second sector, and again in the third, crossing the line at 35.392. Meanwhile, on his first flying lap, Kubica goes ninth with a 37.633.
Rosberg goes quickest in the first sector, as Kubica pushes hard in the BMW. Rosberg goes fourth (36.578), as Kubica goes eighth, and Vettel gets all out of shape. A couple of corners later, Vettel gets out of shape again, but this time he buries it in the gravel, his session ends. That said, the replay show that something appeared to go wring, indeed it looked very much like a repeat of Webber's brake problem in Melbourne.
Thus far, nobody has really appeared to go for the softer (medium) compound, all the times being set on the hard compound.
The session ends, with Massa quickest ahead of Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Piquet, Kubica, Button and Trulli.